CNTCWC D8: New Year's Eve

Hey y'all!

So today we come to the close of my first completed nail art challenge, and it's bittersweet.  I'm proud of a lot of the work I've done, but of course there's still a lot of room for improvement, so that will focus me going into 2014.  Today's final theme is New Year's Eve.  I knew I wanted to do something a bit glamorous and sparkly, and I found the perfect inspiration on a video by Lacquerstyle.  She uses purple/fuchsia and gold in her very elegant look, whereas I've changed the color scheme around to make it very NYE, in my not-so humble opinion.

I took a lot of pics using a lot of different props - something musta got in me last night because I was rummaging through boxes of nick-knacks that I haven't unpacking, looking for things to hold instead of polish bottles.  I also took a lot of focused vs out-of-focus so the holographic glitter sparkle would really come through.

In the light tent

Also in the light tent, blurred

To start this mani, I used a single coat of OPI Solitaire on my index finger, to give a semi-sparkly but fully-covered base for the glitter nail.  Then I alternated Maybelline Blackout and Nails Inc Soho Silver on all the other nails.

NYC always reminds me of NYE, because of the ball dropping in Times Square.

On my middle finger, I used striping tape to create several evenly spaced vertical lines, and then made a sponge gradient with silver on top and black on bottom on this and my pinky finger.  Immediately after sponging, I removed the striping tape to reveal the lined pattern.

 

Both above pics taken in direct sunlight.

 On my thumb and ring finger, I reversed the gradient by putting silver on bottom and black on top.  As a note, any time I'm doing a gradient, I always make the base coat whatever the top color of the gradient will be, so that when cleanup time comes, I don't have to worry about removing the top layer of paint and having my base color poking through underneath around my cuticles, making a ring effect.

Once my silvers and blacks were dried, it was time to start a glitter party!  On my index finger, I started with two coats of elf Confetti Chic, which is a multi-colored glitter topcoat.

On all the other nails, I used a holographic glitter that came in my box of 24 nail art pens, which looks very similar to this one I found online, though I cannot guarantee that particular color is in this set.  I used the steps to create a glitter gradient up the tips of my nails, though I tried to be much more sparse on the nails with the black tips, because I didn't want the glitter to cover the black.  To finish everything off, I added clear rhinestones to the tops of all the gradient nails, and a black rhinestone on the glitter nail to set it off.  Everything is sealed in with a healthy coat of SV.

Hope you guys enjoy this glitzy, glamy look for New Year's Eve.  Anyone going to any fabulous parties?  Also be sure to check out all the other girlz final submissions to the Crumpet Nail Tarts Christmas Winter Challenge, below.

Much love,
Ali